In the October 19 episode of Fox’s “Family Guy,” characters Brian (the family dog) and Stewie (the family child) travel in a time machine to rescue Mort Goldman (a Jewish family-friend) from the Nazi invasion of Poland. After Brian and Stewie disguise Mort as a priest to get him out of the country, a Nazi officer asks Mort, “Are you sure you’re a real priest?” Stewie replies, “Yeah, yeah, I can vouch for him, he’s real. He’s molested me many, many times.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:
“To its credit, the Fox News Channel has criticized its broadcast sister station, Fox, for what happened on last Sunday’s episode. But the criticism only dealt with the implication that Nazis would have supported the McCain-Palin ticket. However, there is also the matter of slandering all gay priests. While it is true that most of the molesters in the Catholic clergy have been gay, most gay priests are not molesters.
“A disturbing pattern has emerged on ‘Family Guy.’ On at least three occasions, it has mocked the Eucharist, and now it is targeting gay priests. The brains behind these assaults is Seth MacFarlane. He is not only the show’s creator, he is a big Barack Obama supporter. This may explain his animus against McCain-Palin, but it is not clear why an Obama fan would find it necessary to beat up on gay priests. After all, Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, just yesterday said he is against Proposition 8, the California resolution that would limit marriage to a man and a woman. Thus did he lay down stakes with the radical gay community.
“Whatever the motive, the juvenile scripts that MacFarlane is associated with could benefit from some fresh material. Make that material that doesn’t bash Catholicism, as well.”
Contact Scott Grogin, Senior VP for Communications:scott.grogin@fox.com
